Turn Your Cat Around

In one paragraph

Brian preached week three of the "Turn the Cat Around" series via a recording, since he was away on a climbing trip with his daughter. The phrase comes from a pastor mentor who used to say that when God's truth pets your fur the wrong way, you don't ask God to change, you turn your cat around. The message worked through the story of Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5 and pressed the question of where,...

Read together

1. John 8:36 quoted in opening prayer: 'whom the son sets free is free indeed'
2. Revelation 12:11 defeating the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony
3. Romans 8:28 Jacob quotes it in prayer: 'your word says that you work all things for the good of those who love you'
4. Ezekiel 33:11 Brian quotes it in week one recap: 'do you think I like to see wicked people perish? I only want them to turn from their wicked ways and live'
5. 2 Kings 5:1-15 the main passage read and preached through, the story of Naaman the leper
6. Genesis 1:27 Brian quotes it on gender: 'God created man in his image and he made them as male and female'

What was said

• Identify one area of your life where you have been telling God how you want him to work things out, and pray a simple prayer of repentance over it.
• If you have been keeping God out of a specific room of your life, open that door this week and ask him in.
• When you catch yourself bargaining with God using what-ifs, stop, get on your knees, say you are sorry, and turn the other way.
• Share a testimony, even a small one, with someone close to you about something you have seen God do recently.
• If someone you know is going through something hard this week, rally around them with prayer the way this community did for Gretchen.

Talk about it

1. Gretchen said she believed God could heal other people but struggled to believe he would heal her personally. Have you ever felt that way, and what shifted your thinking?
2. Jacob said he did not know why God told him to fast, and the connection only became clear later. Can you think of a time God asked you to do something that did not make sense until afterward?
3. Brian pointed out that the king of Israel, when faced with Naaman's request, immediately defaulted to his own resources and assumed the worst. Where do you tend to do that in your own life?
4. Brian described three things Naaman had to let go of: the how, the where, and the what ifs. Which of those three is hardest for you to release, and why?
5. Brian said that in the days ahead the leadership of Jesus will be less complicated but more costly. What is one area of your life where following that simple direction already costs you something?